Rush Hour: Ex-civil servants object to RTI Act amendment, 549 Indians freed from scam centres & more

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A group of 95 retired civil servants and diplomats has urged the Union government to roll back Section 44(3) of the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which amends the Right to Information Act to bar the disclosure of public officials’ personal information.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Constitutional Conduct Group said the amendment would render the RTI Act “largely ineffective”. The group warned it would cripple Section 8(1)(j) of the Act by imposing a blanket ban without defining “personal information”, eroding the public interest clause.

Section 8(1)(j) bars disclosure of personal information unless it serves a larger public interest or relates to public activity and its release does not cause an unwarranted invasion of privacy. The group argued that the RTI Act already protects privacy adequately and the amendment undermines citizens’ right to hold officials accountable. Read on.

The Union government has denied receiving a video report by anthropologist Vishvajit Pandya that documented opposition from the Indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese communities to the Great Nicobar Island Development Project. Responding to MP Saket Gokhale in Parliament, the tribal affairs...

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